The Throwaway Year by Pepper Pace Read Free Book Online

Fox let you train the new hires?” He obviously took more pride in it than Pam did.
    He looked down at his desk and then just shook his head slightly. “I guess that’s all,” he finally said.
    “Oh…   Okay, thank you.” She hoped that she hadn’t said anything wrong.
    With a brief nod , he stood and then left the room.  Hayden watched him walk tiredly into the canteen, curious about why he’d taken the time to help her when he obviously hadn’t been directed to do so by Mr. Fox.  Also, why wasn’t his knowledge being put to use by Mr. Fox?
    She gathered her things and then went to the board to see which spaces were free for her to call. She scowled when she saw that Abdullah had scribbled out her initials and replaced them with his own. B.F. were the only other initials listed. Hayden was even more determined than ever to add her sale to the board before Pam’s child-like drawing of a heart, which took the place of her initials. It was Hayden’s goal in life to now out-do Pam in every way.

~Chapter 5~
THE STRIDES WE MAKE
     
    Hayden fell into bed in near exhaustion. Clean cotton sheets enveloped her freshly showered body and a smile was frozen on her face even hours after she had drifted off to sleep. She had made her second sale and had done it before Pam had made even one. As far as she was concerned, all was right with the world.
    The next morning Hayden stared at the calendar as the oatmeal that she cooked and refrigerated in small batches each w eekend heated in the microwave.  The night before, Hayden had written the newest affirmation on the monthly notes section of her calendar. Her writing had been almost like cat scratch in her fatigue, but at the time, it seemed very important to have it written so that she could read it this morning.
    The way I treat people who I seek and expect nothing from is the same way I treat those I hope to gain and learn from.
    Hayden stared at the words, repeating them, feeling them and then finally trying to accept them. She wouldn’t mind being friends with Brian, but there was no way that she would reach out in a friendly way to Pam… or even to Abdullah. She retrieved her oatmeal in deep thought and then sat down to eat it.
    The hell with that … she scowled. Yet as she rode the recumbent bike at the gym, Hayden couldn’t stop thinking that the meaning of her latest affirmation was not quite so obvious. Friendship was based on trust and only a fool would trust a backstabbing she-dog!
    She was back home and showering away the musk of her workout when she finally came to an understanding of the words that kept playing over and over again in her head. She was standing with her face turned to the spray of the water, feeling a calmness fill her as she reverted to a meditative state. It felt so good to feel her sore muscles being soothed by the hot spray. This calm was the way she wished to always feel.
    Hayden’s eyes suddenly popped open. So then why would she allow a person like Pam to affect her? Yesterday, she had almost lost her cool, until Brian called her over to his desk.
    It was Pam’s own sad f ault that she was hateful.  Besides, what did Hayden really care? That woman was so far beneath her that she didn’t even enter her line of vision. There was just too much going on in Hayden’s own life to waste even an ounce of energy playing get-back-at-Pam games.
    Hayden smiled to herself, blinking her wet lashes. Yep, if a person doesn’t negatively impact her, then it was nothing to treat them the way she would treat any other person, right?  That was the real meaning behind the affirmation.
    Hayden went through the remainder of her morning in high spirits despite the fact that it was Friday; the last day of a long, hard week and by all rights she should be utterly exhausted. She and Dani were hurrying back to work from a corner coffee shop where they had taken their last break. Dani was sipping from an obnoxiously large, whipped cream-laden concoction